Sponsored by: The Varsity Fort Worth

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

It's been a constant topic of conversation all around TCU for years now: when are we going to update our aging football stadium? The first conceptual drawings leaked out a few years ago, along with whispers that the administration was looking towards doing something. Then came more drawings, along with reports that fund-raising was underway.

In the past few months, we've seen news stories informing us that the fund-raising efforts were nearly complete and that an official announcement was looming at it's end, which had a "deadline" of either June 30 or July 1 depending on who you chose to believe.

So now that we're at the brink of that deadline, what comes next? You would think that at this point, no news is bad news. The longer we go on with no word from TCU officials on the matter, the more likely that they eventually let us know that, because of the recession, the fund-raising threashold was not met and that the renovation will not happen. In that case, is it pushed back just until they meet that goal? How long will that take?

Or are we right on the verge of some grand announcement where we'll finally officially learn all of the juicy details for which we've waited so long? The school did just surpass their academic fund-raising goal for 2012 two years early- perhaps the fact that money is pouring in to the school right now is a good omen? And maybe we haven't heard much about this lately because all of the buzz has been about the baseball team.

Then again, the article (published on June 22) about the school meeting those academic goals did conclude with this vague sentence, which kind of makes me think we're gonna have to wait just a bit longer:

"During the remaining years of the campaign, TCU will continue to raise funds for several other areas, including a renovation of Amon Carter Stadium."

I don’t know if this short film has already been posted…or what it even means…I do know that I just used it as an opportunity to introduce Mélissa Theuriau to Spitblood (or vice versa for those Spitblood readers who don’t pay the extra $20 a month to get French TV news). After the video, click the pic to enlarge and share your vote for best photo in the comments.

It's taken me a few days to organize my thoughts after the Frogs' magical run to Omaha ended with Saturday's loss to UCLA. That wasn't the case, though, for David Peterson, who registered his opinions Sunday night on HornedFrogSports.com. Maybe he's more mature than me and takes losses better...or maybe he's a masochist like WWHD, who I found watching the post-game comments from the Fiesta Bowl when I got back home from that trip.

Anyways, here are the thoughts I came away from the whole experience with:

-They should retire Bryan Holaday's #16. Some have disagreed with me on this, saying there are other guys who should have this honor before Holaday. But I say as the heart & soul of the school's very first CWS team, he moves to the head of the line. I understand that he may not end up having the kind of professional career as some other former Frogs, but he's meant the most to the program during his time in Fort Worth.

-This team is ready for another run in 2011. Yeah, they lose some key pieces- Holaday, Curry, Lockwood, Marshall and possibly (probably?) Maxwell. But there's so much more returning, along with some great up & coming talent. They'll probably start out in the Top 5.

-I am very intrigued to see how this run affects the recent momentum that the fanbase has been building (ok, ok, bandwagonism). The excitement of 2008 football rolled in '09 baseball, which rolled into '09 football which continued at full steam ahead during baseball this spring. Will all of this TCU pride continue to result in big attendance numbers this fall? What about next spring?

-I wonder what the over/under for how many times I'll watch Matt Curry's grand slam on youtube before I die is. Gotta be 1,000, assuming the world doesn't end in 2012.